An­na-Lisa Paul

Se­nior Re­porter

an­na-lisa.paul@guardian.co.tt

Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Fitzger­ald Hinds is­sued de­ten­tion or­ders for al­leged gang lead­ers Fran­cis Despot and Joven Gomes yes­ter­day.

In­tel­li­gence sources said Despot, al­so called “Fra­no” and “Mel,” was cred­i­bly iden­ti­fied as a mem­ber of the Oropouche Gang, which was said to be in­volved in nar­cotics and firearms traf­fick­ing and mur­ders.

He was de­scribed as “a per­son con­spir­ing with oth­ers, and in­tend­ing and with the means, to ex­e­cute a plan to car­ry out vi­o­lent re­tal­ia­to­ry reprisal mur­ders in­volv­ing the use of high pow­ered weapons.”

Gomes, al­so called “Joven Gar­cia” and “Bobe,” was iden­ti­fied as the leader of the Five Rivers fac­tion of the Re­sis­tance Gang, which was said to be “in­volved in traf­fick­ing of high-pow­ered firearms, mur­ders, kid­nap­ping, armed rob­beries and ex­tor­tion, and as a per­son or­ches­trat­ing and con­spir­ing with oth­ers, and in­tend­ing and with the means, to car­ry out vi­o­lent gang ac­tiv­i­ty in­clud­ing the re­tal­ia­to­ry mur­der of prison of­fi­cers.”

A de­ten­tion or­der was al­so is­sued for Justin Gomes, known as “Spooky” and “Spooky Dawg,” who was “cred­i­bly iden­ti­fied as a mem­ber, shoot­er and en­forcer of an or­gan­ised crim­i­nal group known as the Re­sis­tance Gang in­volved in traf­fick­ing of high-pow­ered firearms, mur­ders, kid­nap­ping, armed rob­beries and ex­tor­tion, and as a per­son con­spir­ing with oth­ers, and in­tend­ing, and with the means, to car­ry out vi­o­lent gang ac­tiv­i­ty in­clud­ing the re­tal­ia­to­ry mur­der of prison of­fi­cers.”

The de­ten­tion or­ders were dat­ed Feb­ru­ary 24.

There was al­so a de­ten­tion or­der dat­ed Feb­ru­ary 21 for Em­manuel “Mano” Bownes, an al­leged high-rank­ing mem­ber and en­forcer for the Up­per Wa­ter­hole Co­corite Or­gan­ised Crim­i­nal Group, which is af­fil­i­at­ed with the Mus­lim “Nine” Gang.

Bownes was de­scribed as “a per­son as­signed the task, and in­tend­ing and with the means, to ex­pand the ter­ri­to­r­i­al con­trol of the first men­tioned crim­i­nal or­gan­i­sa­tion by us­ing vi­o­lent in­tim­ida­to­ry tac­tics against mem­bers of the pub­lic in­clud­ing shoot­ings and mur­ders.”

All four will be de­tained at the East­ern Cor­rec­tion­al Re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion Cen­tre in San­ta Rosa, Ari­ma.

The or­ders, en­act­ed un­der Reg­u­la­tion 15 of the Emer­gency Pow­ers Reg­u­la­tions, 2024, al­low for the de­ten­tion of in­di­vid­u­als to pre­vent them from “act­ing in any man­ner prej­u­di­cial to pub­lic safe­ty or pub­lic or­der or the de­fence of Trinidad and To­ba­go.”

The reg­u­la­tion fur­ther states that “any per­son in re­spect of whom a de­ten­tion or­der is in force may be ar­rest­ed with­out war­rant by any po­lice of­fi­cer and may be de­tained in such place and un­der such con­di­tions as the Min­is­ter may from time to time di­rect.”

On Tues­day, act­ing Deputy Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice (DCP), Op­er­a­tions, Curt Si­mon con­firmed that 28 pre­ven­tive de­ten­tion or­ders had been grant­ed since the State of Emer­gency (SoE) took ef­fect on De­cem­ber 30.